While the drawings say nothing overtly, the judges all began coming to their own grim conclusions

curtainless windows were the inspiration for New Zealand architect Jonathan Gibb, using the medium of graphite on polyester film, in his foray to the dark side. Gibb’s drawings have a inky intensity so strong that Parker wondered whether he started with a graphite covered sheet and revealed the film beneath with a putty rubber. Whatever one thinks of the seeming plainness of the subject matter, Gibb has managed to evoke what Parker called ‘the moodiness of a film noir’. Dunlop appreciated the ‘chiaroscuro effects that demand a hell of a lot of skill’. While the drawings say nothing overtly, the judges all began coming to their own grim conclusions. Sagoo imagined ‘a form about to walk past the window,’ while Parker asked if ‘skulls lurked in the shadows’. The unspoken narrative and evident skilled hand of the renderer made this effort worthy of singling out. ‘They are like a beautiful, blurred photograph,’ said Sagoo. ‘I imagine that in the flesh these drawings have a real physicality to them,’ remarked Parker, adding: ‘The crack of light in that last image is just gorgeous.’ A worthy third place.

The most film noir-ish of all our entries, Jonathan Gibb’s graphite technique is intensely evocative, for example in ‘Undercroft II’.